


Of Bone and Heat

by phoenixburncold



Series: Mysteries and Memories [1]
Category: Mystery Skulls, Mystery Skulls Animated
Genre: Blood, I will add to this with each new video, Lewis is asexual, Lewis's side, Multi, Swearing, Vivi is pansexual, What happened to Lewis, also the locket is not an anchor, but lewis thinks it is, depression bits, dude's dead, gonna have a bad time or two, i will also edit this to be correct in lore as vids come out, long fic, this is going to be a
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-10 01:53:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 15
Words: 14,123
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27705838
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixburncold/pseuds/phoenixburncold
Summary: Lewis's side of the events, going from just before "Ghost" to "The Future".
Series: Mysteries and Memories [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026324
Comments: 4
Kudos: 36





	1. I'm With Friends

Vivi laughs and Lewis’s heart swells a little before he joins her, the punchline he just delivered landing. He glances back at Arthur in the backseat and sees him grinning as well, albeit a bit smaller than he had been hoping. Even Mystery the dog seems to enjoy the joke, panting lightly making him seem like he’s smiling and wagging his tail as he looked at everybody in the Mystery Skulls Van.

This was everything Lewis had wanted. His best friend since high school, a woman they had met at a ghost convention two years back, her dog, and him, together, on the road, searching for the paranormal on the weekends and the rare weeks they managed to get off. Sure, it meant most of the time out it was fast food and motel beds, but it was _the dream_. The dream Lewis had had for years, while he worked in his parent’s restaurant Pepper Paradiso.

It was fine, working at the restaurant, he loved his adopted parents and siblings, but Lewis had always wanted to move. To go places he’d never been before, to see things he’d never seen before. He’d spend hours talking with Arthur about it, pouring over books of different places, the rise in paranormal activity across the states, myths, and legends of all things paranormal. Arthur was smart, he’d see connections to things in seconds where it’d take Lewis hours. And he let Lewis talk, over the phone, in person while they sat on bedroom floors with open magazines and books strewn around them, all the time. Always engaging and enthusiastic, at least when it came to theories. The two times he had gone with Lewis to nearby haunted sites he was a shaking mess, hiding behind Lewis, yelping at any unexpected noise. But during their first real hunt, it was Arthur who had connected the painting of the unhappy adopted daughter and the doll that was made with her hair and who burned both the doll and painting while Lewis held off the ghost of the girl. Arthur was brave when he needed to be.

Then they went to that ghost convention and Lewis, with Arthur as his shadow, began to see all the possibilities. People left and right were looking for partners to start their own searches, their own hunts across the states, to protect people, and solve mysteries that had the cover of supernatural but were in fact very human-based. There they met Vivi and her dog aptly named Mystery and it just…clicked. Arthur was the genius mechanic, Lewis the muscle, Vivi the funds and leadership, even Mystery seemed to have a nose for the paranormal. Each of them enthusiastic, young, and ready for adventure. Their first case was only a state over and it made headlines briefly. It was all over after that.

They’ve spent two years together now.

There were plenty of times, of course, they weren’t on the road. Usually they could only make it out on the weekends, although every other month or so, they’d pull off a week or two on the road. Lewis would help his parents with the restaurant, Arthur would get greased up with his Uncle Lance, Vivi would work at the comic book store she helped manage. Vivi and Lewis would spend most nights together; Vivi helping him wash dishes late in the night, or playing board games with the whole family, or recounting some of their more PG hunts to his sisters, or watching other teams of paranormal hunters and taking notes, or just lying in bed together in comfortable silence. 

They’ve been dating a year now. Vivi had asked him out, much to his surprise – he had told her early on that he was asexual. When he reminded her of that she had laughed saying, “And I’m pansexual? What’s that got to do with anything?” Lewis wasn’t sure he could love a person more than he did at that moment. He had known Arthur loved him, and he loved Arthur, but the blonde had never asked him for anything more than friendship. Lewis had toyed with the idea of asking Arthur himself several times over the years, but he didn't want to force Arthur into a relationship where he may not get everything he wanted. With Vivi, everything was open, they both got what they wanted - what they needed - whenever asked and a part of Lewis quietly wondered if it could have been this way with Arthur as well.

Arthur would come around to the restaurant some nights too just to hang out, to the younger Pepper’s delight. Lewis had told them time and time again not to harass his friend, but every once and a while one of them would get the overly cautious young man – though to Arthur’s credit, never the same way twice. Lewis admired Arthur for that.

Vivi made sure they got together at least once a week to look for new paranormal activities; usually it’d be an early dinner at the restaurant on a Tuesday when it was slow. They’d take up a booth, fill it with newspapers, highlights, and two pairs of scissors and look for anything that seemed in their wheelhouse. Arthur opted for the laptop searching, but Lewis liked the feel ofnewspaper in his hands. Vivi would gather everything together – print outs from websites and Lewis’s newspaper cuttings, put it all in her files. She was the brains of the operation, managing the monies and missions. Then on the weekend they’d pile into the Van and drive. 

On the road.

This is where Lewis was happiest. Vivi in the front with him. Arthur in the backseat, usually hung over the seats. Mystery moving from the front to the back and vice versa. They’d trade driving between the three of them, though Lewis always took the longest shifts, and always did the night runs if they couldn’t find a motel or make it home. The Van was big enough to hold a cot in the back with their equipment and the backseat was comfortable; and it was much cheaper. He liked it, keeping them safe while they slept, getting them to their destination in time for a hot breakfast, or just eating up distance while they rested.

Tonight is where it will all fall apart, though none of them know it.

It is one of those full weeks they had off together and they had used it to bounce from one place to the next, a haunted house that ended up being a greedy lawyer trying to hold onto his late business partner’s money, to what all the people in three counties called the Cursed Cave.

Lewis keeps cracking jokes, sometimes with Vivi adding her own, to try to keep Arthur from worrying himself to pieces before they got there. He notices, however, the closer they get, the less Arthur smiles. He keeps glancing out the window, watching the forest pass by. It is fall, the trees bare, making eerie shadows over the Van from the light of the slivered moon. The Van’s headlights show off the road, and Lewis checks the map once more before it is suddenly not necessary.

The cave is large and…glowing? No, it’s just a trick of the light, the Van’s lights peaking into the entrance of the cave and reflecting back slightly. It looks like an evil entity snarling in malice with stalactites hanging down as fangs, starting at the very front of the cave, echoing back several feet in the gaping “maw”.

Lewis looks back at Arthur in time to watch him gulp before Vivi gives an excited squeak. 

“Oh wow,” she says starstruck. “Look at that! The shape is so fascinating.”

Lewis shares a look with Arthur, who cracks a small smile before gulping again. 

“Alright team,” announces Vivi, pushing her glasses up the bridge of her nose, “let’s go.” Mystery gives an eager bark, wagging his tail.

Lewis throws the car in park, leaving the keys in the ignition after turning it off. No one ever came this way, warned off by the curse, or at least by the giant skull and crossbones sign next to the cave. The group grabs flashlights and radios. The last of the crickets fill the air with their music and a woodland creature scuffles in the forest nearby as they walk toward the cave. They take two steps into the cave and the lights flicker out, to the unnerving sound of three handheld radios shorting out.

“Oh. Well.” Vivi glares at her flashlight as if that will make it work. 

“Greeaaat,” drawls Arthur, voice shaking.

The group immediately turns around, tossing the flashlights back into their box as Lewis searches for the regular torches. Arthur sighs, putting the radios in the crate that meant his projects. Lewis hopes they just need new batteries and aren’t completely fried. Arthur will find out in a matter of minutes when they get back.

“We need more torches,” Lewis declares, looking at the single one left in a box that once had half a dozen. “What happened to – oh right, we used them all up that night camping last month.”

“Noted,” says Vivi, grabbing a notepad from her back pocket and writing it down with the pen attached to the spiral.

Arthur gives a soft whimper as Lewis pulls out the remaining torch and lights it. Lewis glances at the other man. “Don’t worry,” Lewis tells him, dropping a gentle hand on Arthur’s shoulder. “We’ll get out before the torch goes halfway, okay?”

Arthur looks him in the eyes and nods, though he still gulps.

The cave is very damp. The slow _drip_ of water is almost as constant as a heartbeat as they search the inside. Vivi tucks her scarf around a little tighter, she’s always been the coldest one of them all. Lewis wraps an arm around her shoulder and she glances up at him with a small smile. Arthur practically hugs his other side, Mystery on the other side of Vivi. Stalactites drip to the ground, forming dull stalagmites all over the cave, but surprisingly there was a decent enough path for the four of them to walk like this for a good while. A few late-rising bats still hang from some of the rocks above them, but the ceiling’s so high the torchlight doesn’t bother them as the group passes.

It takes about five minutes before they reach a fork in the path, having found no signs of strange things. This fork, however, spoke of a _lot_ of strangeness. The wooden signs are scrawled not in words but symbols, there are skulls around the signs, and, most notably, both sides glow an eerie green. Vivi peaks into one side. “It’s actually light enough inside to see,” she states, leaning back to poke the skull on top of the sign, making Arthur squeak. “Relax, it’s fake. Look, the nose hole is way too small and people’s teeth don’t look like that.”

Arthur starts to shake.

“Should we split up then?” Lewis asks, trying to move the subject along.

Vivi shrugs. “Probably best. That is if the light stays strong enough in there.”

Lewis nods and lets out a sigh. “I wish the radios were still working.”

“We’ll be fine,” assures Vivi, glancing from him to Arthur. “Meet back here in a few.”

“Are you sur– ” Arthur starts before seeing Vivi’s face and clamping his mouth shut.

Both men nod before the group split. Arthur follows Lewis up the left path, Vivi goes down the right one. There are fewer stalactites now, but it is clear they are heading up an incline. The path is pretty wide, though, and even with Arthur clinging to Lewis’s shoulder from time to time, he has no problem navigating the winding, upward footpath. The green that seems to light up the cave is eerie, barely beat back by the torch. It’s only a couple of minutes before the path stops though, plunging into a cliff. The cavern around them _feels_ wrong.

“Yeesh,” Lewis says before looking at the sudden drop. He takes a few steps forward, leaning slightly over the cliff. “Look at that!” he breaths at the sight below.

“N-nno, th-thanks,” Arthur stutters a few feet behind him. “I’ll s-stay back here.”

“The stalagmites down there are chipped unnaturally into spikes. There’s _definitely_ something malicious here.” There is mist down there too, the same crazy green that lights up the air where they were. In fact, there seems to be a lot more of it now than there was only a second ago.

“You don’t say?”

Lewis frowns. The voice _sounds_ like Arthur’s but…also not. As he turns to face him, Lewis suddenly finds himself chest to chest with Arthur. His mouth forms a word but instead the breath is pushed out of his lungs as Arthur _shoves_ him backward.

It takes a moment to register it. Lewis is falling back first towards the stalagmites he had just been admiring. There is no way to stop his fall, Arthur pushed him with all his wiry strength, shoving him far away from the cliffside. The spiked calcium is waiting for him down below. _Why Arthur?_ Oh gods, he is going to die here, pushed by his best friend, who is just _staring_ as he drops.

Lewis falls, shocked and angry. Arthur hates him enough to kill him and Lewis has no idea why. He looks around in a vain attempt to find a vine or something else hanging around he could grab but instead finds Vivi standing at the bottom of the cliff, on the same floor the spikes erupt from. She’s peering at the unnatural nature of them, no doubt noting the same thing he had, her eyes sparkling in delight behind her glasses, which have fallen down the bridge of her nose again. She hasn’t seen him yet, but she most suddenly would. It’s like a volt of electricity runs through Lewis, burning out every other emotion and every thought except one.

_Oh gods, any god that’s willing to listen, please don’t let her remember me like–_

Rock pierces through fabric, then flesh and breaks bone, and some of the more eager spikes go through cloth again. The pain is sharp, immediate, and shocking. Stalagmites shatter his spine in three places, most notably severing a vertebra at the neck. Spikes crack his ribs, the longest piercing the wet meat of his left lung and heart, which valiantly pumps twice more before stopping. His limbs are broken amongst the stones.

Lewis’s breath goes out, gurgling under the blood that filled his lungs and mouth, and there is no inhale. The locket he wears around his neck under his clothes slips from its broken chain, falling to the ground with a noise so soft it doesn’t register in the cave. Blood streams down, joining the moisture of the cave.

Pink mist seeps around the area, searching for Vivi and finding her only a few steps away. She’s opening her mouth, about to scream at the sight of Lewis, when the mist slips into her eyes and her body goes slack.

A dying wish granted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please be kind in regards to uploading, I'm an essential worker right now and am trying to hang onto this hyper fixation for as long as I can.  
> Edited since I realized I had forgotten a couple of crucial sentences between drafts.


	2. Might Just Disappear

Lewis isn’t sure how long has passed when he finds himself kneeling on the cave ground, but he knows he is alone and he is angry and scared, screaming in agony…screaming in silence. Green mist battles the light around him. Lewis isn’t sure how long has passed when he finds himself kneeling on the cave ground, but he knows he is alone and he is angry and scared, screaming in agony…screaming in silence. Green mist battles the light around him. 

Gold pulses on the ground before him, catching his attention. Pink flames burst from Lewis’s body, burning away the mist to reveal the locket Vivi gave him last year on his birthday. He reaches for it but starts realizing he’s now wearing gloves with metal sewn into the back of the fingers and hands. His hands are shaking now, but he steels himself and reaches again for the locket. It’s huge compared to the small piece of jewelry it once was, big enough to fill his gloved palm when he picks it up. It’s glowing a burning gold, beating to a rhythm he had always unconsciously been aware of, but now seemed to hear as clearly as a person speaking. It is heavy and warm. Lewis presses the top of it and the heart opens. There’s a picture inside of Lewis cradling Vivi, both laughing. There was another image in it once, but he can't remember what exactly it was. _Something to this effect,_ he thinks. It feels right at least.

There is an ache in his very being, like being cramped in a position for too long. It _hurts._ He is aware of a tight strum that emanates from his very existence, like a violin string too tightly strung being played. It is unnerving.

Lewis looks down at himself for the first time. His broken ribs were visible, wrapped around his vest. A hole is where his heart should have been, he shudders as he remembers feeling the stone spike pierce him. As he watches, purple plumes around it the wound, sealing it, but leaves behind the hole in the clothes. The clothes are torn in a few other places, too. Reaching up, Lewis found his face is now a skull. There is fear, and then there is anger.

Arthur pushed him off a cliff. Arthur, his supposed best friend since high school, killed him. If he could kill Lewis, he would go after Vivi next. There is no way he is going to let Arthur kill her. 

Lweis looks down at the frayed edges of his neckerchief, and with an angry tug, rips it off him. _This won’t do,_ he thinks before fashioning himself new outfit. An appropriate black suit – he was dead after all – and a purple tie to replace the neckerchief. 

Lewis stands.

And suddenly he’s tugged backward, slamming into one of the stalagmites. Stunned, Lewis drops to his knees, hand to his skull. When his vision settles, he finds himself somewhere in the cave he’s not seen before. There’s green here, the mist is strong here. Lewis immediately stiffens. It feels _awful_ in here. The green swirls like it has a mind and it coats Lewis before he can think.

Anger fills him. _Arthur PUSHED HIM. HE IS DEAD BECAUSE OF ARTHUR! DEAD! ARTHUR’S FAULT! DEAD! ARTHUR’S FAULT! DEAD!_

The loop continues, over and over, punctuated by images flashing before his vision. He’s falling. He sees Arthur at the top of the cliff. _**Is he smiling!?**_

Lewis is falling. 

He fell. 

He looks at his dead body, blood filling his mouth before dripping out the side, his eyes lifeless, open in shock. 

He’s hovering now high in the air. Something is leeching from behind; he can feel the draw of power pulling out of him through his back. Energy is being _ripped_ out of him and he opens his mouth to scream before the green disappears, and he’s suddenly back in the same place he had been before.

Then he falls to his knees before dropping fully to the ground. He lands on the heart and finds himself pulled into it before his consciousness fades.


	3. No Guarantee

Lewis isn’t sure how long has passed when he wakes. But he feels stronger, so that’s something. He realizes he’s hovering and looks down at himself. He is purple and he is naked. Around him is nothing but black, and a glow he seems to emit. It’s warm here, it feels safe. All around him is that beat, the rhythm of the universe, still with the too-tight string sensation, but Lewis is pretty sure that’s never going to go away. After all, spirits aren’t supposed to stick around.

_Vivi._

Lewis takes a breath, or at least does the motion of it, and the protectiveness he had in life fills him. He pulls himself through the darkness, demanding to be let out, and suddenly he is. Lewis stands, clothed in the way he had fashioned himself before collapsing, on the cave floor. He doesn’t turn, not wanting to see the ruins of his body again, the images he had seen when whatever it was grabbed him was enough for him.

There is no way to know how long had passed. There is no way to know where Vivi was. So Lewis does the next best thing, he begins to see what he could do. He knows enough from the years of study that spirits could do any number of things. He will need full control if he is to protect Vivi.

At first, it takes a while to focus enough to do anything. Everything feels so foreign, the sounds louder and clearer, the sense of touch stronger. It takes focus to actually stand on the ground, his body wanting to float instead. The locket beats steadily in his hand. Lewis isn’t sure what to do with it. He tries to settle it in one of his pockets. It hovers up out of the pocket to hang in the air, near his chest. Gently he pulls it toward his chest, and there it seems to latch on the jacket over where his human heart would have been. _Okay then._

Lewis looks at his hands, clenching and unclenching them a few times. Focusing on them, he tries to feel something. Nothing happens. Frustration flashes in him, and in that moment purple flames cover his fists. _Oh._ He attempts to throw the flame and it breaks apart some of the stones nearby. _Huh._ Lewis looks up, willing himself to the top of the cliff. He moves, sluggishly, at first, but after a little while, he’s able to shift and fly as easily as he used to walk.

By the time Lewis masters movement he is exhausted again. It takes no effort to fade into the locket; he merely holds it, focusing on the ever-present beat and then he is taken into the warm darkness and lets himself drift gently into whatever sleep a spirit can achieve.

Time is a strange concept now. He can go to the opening of the cave to see if it is night or day, but when he’s inside the darkness of the locket, time is unmarkable. Fueled by that fact, knowing he can’t waste time, that every second he spends here means putting Vivi in more and more danger, Lewis forces himself to learn what he can do at a rate far more speedily than a normal unhappy spirit would have.

Unnervingly, there are times in the middle of his self-taught lessons where Lewis is pulled backward into a part of the cave he cannot find on his own, where he is forced into a loop of rage and despair, each time, feeling as if he is being drained of the very life force that keeps him tethered to the world, to fall to his knees in agony, and to quickly disappear into the safe warm shelter of the heart.

In a particularly anxious moment, he conjures little purple creatures who have small antennae and little gold hearts in the center of their chests. Both antennae and hearts beat to the rhythm of his own heart. They sing in notes and tunes, each of them emitting different energies. They seem to know what he wants without him even speaking. When he doesn’t give orders, they latch to his body, humming their notes until he banishes them.

It is a complete accident when Lewis realizes he can warp reality around him instead of just being drawn into whatever scenarios the green mist forms for him. 

In his darkness, he dreams of – or perhaps remembers? – Vivi and him watching a comedy in the bedroom they shared, sitting on the bed with his arm around Vivi’s shoulders, both of them shaking with laughter. When he pulls himself out of the darkness, the bedroom is there – exactly as it had been, though a little see-through. Lewis looks at the scene, shocked. He moves toward the bed and gently sits down on it. It feels real enough. Sadness fills him. He’ll never really get to go home again.

The image disappears, leaving reality in its wake, though pieces of his wallpaper seem strewn around the floor, lingering for a few moments before disappearing as well. Lewis conjures a few of the creatures he has fondly named Deadbeats, letting their humming wash over him a moment. He pulls the locket from its place to stare at the picture inside. Anger and protectiveness burn out his pain and he began to see just how far he can go, dreaming his world around him.


	4. Hide In Shadows

There was once a mansion nearby, Lewis remembers suddenly, after several days of attempting to make his illusions fully realized instead of see-through. The mansion had burned down decades ago and the massive landholding changed hands. The new landowners were planning on rebuilding, until five surveyors either went mad or missing. The history the Mystery Skulls team had dug up mentioned the cave system and how the eldest son of the family had supposedly explored it the day before he set the place on fire, killing himself and the youngest sister. 

Perhaps Lewis needs the bones of reality to build upon to create the perfect illusion. _But how do I get out of here?_ he wonders, looking unhappily at the spikes that had taken his life with a little help. He’s paced the cave for ages it seems, searching for the strange place he is pulled into from time to time, or just because there is nothing else he can think to do. Then he realizes he’s never really tried to leave. Taking the enlarged locket from his chest, Lewis looks at it and suddenly feels foolish. _Of course. Why else would it be like this now, if it wasn’t my anchor?_ He shakes his head at himself before a rogue thought goes, _I bet Arthur woulda figured it out in a second._

Angrily, Lewis stomps on that part of him hard, forcing it down. He was _not_ about to give Arthur any kind words. Letting the anger warm him further than he already was, Lewis floats to the entrance and looks out. It’s the middle of the day. Carefully, he takes a step outside.

Nothing seems different. Looking down, the heart still heats in his hand. The rare wind blows and he thinks perhaps he can feel it. It’s _so bright_ though. He’s not used to the strength of the sun like this. Perhaps time spent in the cave system had hindered his sight…or perhaps it is merely being dead. He stands out in the light for a moment longer, hoping his sight will recover, but it only seems to hurt more. In fact, it’s beginning to burn. Lewis slinks back into the cave and sulks.

He tries two more times to go out while it’s light, each time giving the same effect. Finally, the sun sets. Lewis moves forward, and is pulled backward again, slamming hard into the wall of the cave, surrounded by green mist. _Leave me alone_ , Lewis wails silently, struggling like always to escape something far stronger, far older, and far more malicious than he is.

_**MINE**_ , snaps the mist before twisting into Lewis’s very soul.

Lewis screams in agony. 

Silence echoes through the cave.


	5. Safety

It takes four attempts before Lewis is able to escape the cave without getting grabbed and drained dry. Lewis pulls himself out of the heart, leaping out of the cave as soon as the moon rises, scrambling as far away from the entrance as he can, as the green mist begins to form around him. It takes a few moments of panic before he realizes the mist is locked in the cave. Relieved, he can actually look around. The rising moon is the smallest sliver in the sky, but Lewis can see fine in the growing darkness. The road is still there, the trees still bare, but it feels much warmer than it had been the last time he had been outside. He suddenly realizes the cave was full of sound, the water dripping, or his own footsteps echoing. It is far too quiet here, even with the sound of the universe beating quietly. 

To keep himself company, he creates three deadbeats. These three are his usual companions, and he has found their notes combined make a pleasing tune. One has a worried look, the second a deep scowl, the third’s mouth continually stays open in a twisted grin. He floats down the barely used road, heading down to where they had come to a fork in the road. One road slips up to the mansion, the second heads straight to Tempo, the third goes dips past the cave. Lewis moves slowly, having escaped his locket without his full strength in hopes he could beat the mist and whatever possessed it. It worked, but it has left Lewis tired. _Get to the mansion_ , he thinks, not realizing he’s humming with his deadbeats. _Just…keep…moving._

The moon is high in the sky by the time Lewis finally reaches the grounds. The wall that surrounds the main grounds is still in pretty good shape, bricks mostly unsinged from the flames that had ravaged the area. For a moment, Lewis just hovers there, taking it all in. He is tired.

He can feel the echoes of the mansion. Lewis lifts a hand, trying to create an outline of the mansion in his head. Nothing happens. Lewis is tired. So…tired.

He doesn’t even realize he’s slipped back into the heart until he wakes up again, some time later. Peering out of the heart, he finds the half-moon is rising over the grounds where his heart lays. Pulling himself out, Lewis feels better…stronger than he has in quite some time. He’s not sure if it’s being out of the cave or if he just spent a long time recovering, but either way, he feels _ready._

With a wave of his hand, a glowing mansion is born, solid and bathed in the moonlight. Windows glow with a purple interior light. Lewis studies the outline, adding a few touches here and there. He wants something special in the left side windows but decides to work on it later, unsure quite what he wants to put there. The doors are wooden with spirals engraved in the handles and he flings them open with a flourish. 

Inside is interesting. Lewis was expecting it to be empty but suspects this is what the mansion had looked like back when it was standing. There are several candelabrums on either side of the main entrance, leading into the foyer. Each candle is lit by pink flame. Wallpaper in the entry area and foyer are stripes of dark and light purple, faded in some places, falling to reveal wood behind it in others. A large bifurcated staircase and a giant candle chandelier hanging from the ceiling are the main features of the foyer. The left hallway past the staircase has two suits of armor, each armed with a sword and medieval shield, a red plume flowing down from the helmet. Lewis likes this look and imagines the suits lining the entire hallway. Copies form from pink flames as Lewis floats down the hallway.

Further down are portrait frames. The pictures inside are empty. Lewis moves past them; he will fill them in later. The hallway makes a right turn. More empty portraits. The second right turn leads Lewis back to the foyer. More empty frames. Lewis stands in front of the giant staircase.

 _Down,_ he thinks, and suddenly he is falling through the floor, landing abruptly on the first floor of the mansion. A kitchen. Cupboards line the walls, counters between the top and bottom ones. They are painted red to contrast the black and white checkerboard floor and backsplash, the purple wallpaper behind the top counters reaching up to the ceiling. The left side counter has a sink. Lewis makes a fridge in the open space meant for it, stamping a skull in the front for flare. He moves past the kitchen, heading deeper into the mansion. A hallway leads to what Lewis can only imagine once being a theatre area. Seats surround a platform with stairs leading up to it, a large red curtain shielding the stage from sight until Lewis pulls it back.

 _No, this will not do. It’s far too large for one thing._ Lewis shrinks the room in half and then again. _There._ Then he makes the stage stone, not wood, to match the columns in the room. Here he will make an entrance, but now he is tired. He fades into darkness.


	6. It Doesn't Matter

Time away from the cave has done wonders for Lewis. His strength returns faster, and he is able to stay stronger longer. _Is this what it’s like for all spirits?_ he wonders, fully stocking the kitchen with a wave of his hand. Food of several varieties manifests in the fridge, ornate cutlery and dishes fill the cupboards, drinks gather inside both a cupboard and the fridge. Further down, he wishes an ornate coffin to stand on the stage, four iron wrought torchiere on the stairs leading up to the coffin.

He imagines pulling Arthur here, his shocked face as he looks up at the sight. Lewis plans carefully, keeping the room ornate in places, and leaving them wrecked in others, to keep the man on edge. Here he plans for a long time.

Finally, Lewis returns to the front staircase again, deciding to go up the stairs to see what is there. Perhaps he will draw them in, let them investigate the entire place before finally dragging Arthur away. He’s not sure how he wants to do it yet. Maybe – _Oh gods, is that what I look like?_

Lewis stops, staring at his image in the floor to ceiling mirror on the wall just past the stairs on the right side. His skull is not a normal human shape, it is far more fanged than he had thought, sharp edges protruding down and his cheekbones look like they could wound. He lifts a hand over the top of it, sighing sadly. _No hair._ Lewis admits to a little vanity, he had always liked his hair. He notes there is no neck, his skull just hovers there, his eye sockets are black pits. And his shoulders, he was never this broad in life, his legs look so small in comparison to his upper body. The ribs around his chest are spiked as well, he can tell better from this angle. Lewis supposes that makes sense, he did die with anger in him. At least his hands he knows. The locket beats in time, golden and bright compared to his darkness. It looks perfect where it is, above the ribs, beside the tie, over the lapel of the jacket. Lewis shelters it with his hand. For some reason, seeing it like this makes it more precious. The most human thing about him, and it’s out for all to see.

He stares at himself for a long while. Finally, he thinks, _if only I could find something to do with my hair_. Okay, yeah, he’s going to be a bit vain. _No ghost wig shops around I’d bet._ Almost without thought, he conjures flames in his hands. They are reminiscent of his hair color, though a much brighter shade. _This is ridiculous_ , he thinks, shifting his hands around, imagining the flame not as fire but as fibers. He pulls and twists and after a few failed attempts, manages to create something that is as close as he thinks he’s going to get. It’s a little spiker than it once was, but so is the rest of him. Gently, he sets it on his head. It stays, flickering slightly but it looks…well it looks more like him. Without even realizing it, his eyes grow pink irises.

_“Hi Lewis.”_

Lewis reels back. _“Vivi?”_ His voice sounds more hollow than he remembers it being, but that’s not what has his focus.

He can _hear_ her.

_Vivi giggles, looking up at him from over her pink glasses, her hand in his in a shake. Mystery stands beside her, a red leash looped around her wrist, sniffing hard at Arthur’s feet. “It’s nice to meet you.”_

__

__

_To his left is a sign advertising a ghost hunting seminar featuring the best tools for beginners. Throngs of people are all around, but they are blurry compared to the sharp detail Vivi and Mystery are in. Lewis is tongue-tied at her. Vivi looks at Mystery, who is now sitting firmly on a nervous Arthur’s feet, and giggles again. “He likes you,” she tells Arthur, a bright grin on her face. Arthur offers a shy smile, reaching down to pet Mystery’s head._

The image shatters and then it’s Arthur shoving Lewis back, a twisted grin on half of his face and then it’s stabbing pain and blood filling his mouth.

Lewis _howls_ and the mansion flies apart.

Lewis curls upon himself, now on the dirt of the grounds. He moans, digging his hands into his sight. The sharp, over-strung sound vibrates in his being loudly, and no matter how hard he tries he can’t escape it. He rocks on the ground, clutching his knees. He feels like a child but who cares? It’s not like anyone has or will come to find him. He is alone, he is tired, and it all _hurts._

A hum snaps him out of the downward spiral he’s fallen into. Lewis looks to his left to see the sad deadbeat on his shoulder, sprouted up there. It continues to hum, rubbing its head against his skull like a cat.

Despite himself, Lewis gives a soft chuckle, patting the creature’s head. The note it sings gets louder. The beat of his locket brightens the overcast night. Lewis takes the heart again in his hands, opening it. It centers him, beating in his hand, the look of delight on Vivi’s face.

Determination fills him again and he stands, giving one last pat to the little Deadbeat on his shoulder before it disappears, as the mansion reappears, like a saved work of fiction on a laptop.


	7. Just Dis-

There is another moment where reality seems to be two different things at once while Lewis is working on the mansion, but this time it is far…stranger. Feeling a tug to return to the kitchen, Lewis follows the feeling and finds a translucent version of Vivi standing there. She’s laughing silently, reaching up in the cupboard and pulling out an instant coffee container. _Did I make that?_ Lewis wonders before seeing another shape fill a translucent chair that appears beside a familiar looking table. It’s him, or at least a living version of him, and his mouth is moving as if he’s talking but Lewis hears no words. Vivi shifts, looking at him – the living him – and talks, her mouth still curled in a smile as she pulls down two cups and fills them with the hot water from the electrical kettle.

Lewis stares watching the scene pass before him, Vivi bringing the living him the stirred coffee and sitting opposite of him at the table, both of them talking silently. Vivi reaches out with a hand and touches his counterpart’s hand, and Lewis swears he can feel her hand on his own bony one. Then the image bursts, like a bubble on the floor.

Lewis stares at his hand rubbing his fingers over the place he swore he could feel Vivi. _A dream of hers, perhaps?_ he wonders. _Or another memory so mundane death has washed it away?_ Either way, he holds onto the image of her laughing on her tiptoes leaning up for the coffee as he conjures her electric kettle on the far end of the counter, next to two cups and an instant coffee container.

Lewis isn’t sure how long it’s been when he feels a tug in the very center of him. He was trying to decide what to do with the left part of the mansion, standing in front of it with his hands on his tiny hips, when he feels it and although he cannot explain, he knows instantly why.

_They’re coming,_ he thinks, and suddenly panics. He’s not ready yet. The mansion side isn’t done, the rooms upstairs he’s barely touched, he hasn’t even found the way to physically get to the first floor. _I’ll have to improvise,_ he tells himself before quickly rushing back into the house, conjuring as many deadbeats as he can on the way. So far, his limit has been four, but apparently the extra panic has given him the strength to make five. _Wait,_ he thinks stopping cold. _How will I even know they will stop?_

He can feel them getting closer, can practically hear the music coming from the Van. _Stop_ , he demands, sending his will out to the Van as it reaches his view from the leftmost front window from between wooden boards. It moves along smoothly on the road, a spot of yellow in the forest of dull brown and dark purple. Lewis can see them in the Van now, Arthur driving, Vivi in the front seat, grinning at each other. Mystery sits between them, panting a smile himself. _STOP._

And then the Van starts sputtering, rolling on momentum before coming to a stop directly in front of the stairs leading to the mansion.

_Did I know I could do that?_ Lewis wonders before the task ahead of him burns out everything else. _The portraits_ , he thinks in a panic before throwing the first images that come to mind into them. A few are people, but most he’s pretty sure are just hearts, roses, and thorned vines. He drops down to the main level, focusing on the heat coming from the three distinct energies that are approaching his mansion. On impulse he imagines a trap door that will drop them all to the first floor. He leaves his deadbeats on the first floor, throws willpower into the armored suits to make them move, and adds a touch of power to one of the portraits to make it pull on the rope that will activate his trap door. Sliding into the coffin, he can hear music, his own beat filling the mansion.

The three energies enter his mansion. He has planned for this at least, shutting the front doors as soon as they enter, leaving them in darkness for the briefest of moments before letting loose a single piece of flame to drift in front of them before lighting the candles one by one, first in the main entrance down to the chandelier, before lighting the mansion fully. He can see through everything, the suits of armor, the portraits, even his deadbeats. His glance moves through the group, Vivi, delighted, Arthur and Mystery unnerved. The music seems to beat through the whole place, his deadbeats singing along, moving from in front of them to behind them. Lewis glares at Arthur, letting his control slip a moment, turning the deadbeats from harmless to savage a moment. This, of course, causes Arthur to run, the others not far behind him. They racing through the hallway and as Lewis’s gaze tightens to only Arthur, some of his will snaps into one of the suits of armor, striking out at him before he reigns back his anger a moment. _Not yet._

They avoid the sword, skidding into the section of portraits. _Too spread out,_ Lewis thinks, having only imagined a small trapdoor. His panic shoots through the portraits, causing them to pull out of their frames, effectively scaring them into a single pile.

_Now,_ Lewis thinks, nodding to the portrait to pull on the rope to the door, feeling satisfaction as he senses them dropping. Leftover mirrors and the other ideas that had been tumbling in his mind for the mansion fill the space they are dropping into before Lewis tugs at Arthur’s energy, forcing him down into the room he is in. He hears the _thud_ of Arthur landing and lets him sit there a moment before pulling away the coffin lid. The man is on his butt, blinking heavily as if he was dazed. Lewis glares at Arthur, the room mostly dark. Lewis looks down at his locket, sheltering it in a hand for several moments. Now that the time has come, is he ready? Can he really go through with this? What would Vivi do after losing both him and now Arthur? _It doesn’t matter,_ Lewis thinks, angrily. _I won’t let her be hurt by him._ Lewis glares again at Arthur, dropping his hand from the heart, and hovering down the steps of the stage, landing on his feet in front of Arthur.

_That_ gets Arthur to finally look up at him and Lewis’s anger jumps up again. 

To the beat the Universe pounds around him, he snarls, _“Fuck it’s **you** I hate the most,”_ while pointing a bony finger at Arthur and glaring at him.

Arthur immediately starts to sweat, eyes shocked, and points to himself in a shaking, questioning manner. “ME?” he squeaks.

Lewis does the equivalent of closing his eyes. He wants to make this a show, but he’s never honestly tried this out before. _No time like the present_ , he thinks before summoning more of his power. In a matter of seconds, he has a firm grasp of his power, which feels like it’s getting more refined by the moment. He forms pupils of the flame before lighting the four torchieres one by one in flames. Now Arthur has enough to light to see him properly. With a last second thought, Lewis forms his hair again, his anger giving him so much power it appears on his head with a wave of his skull.

Arthur, who had sprung to his feet as the last flame lit the torchiere, shakes in front of Lewis before taking off. Lewis lets him get a few steps before chasing after him, forgetting to ground himself, and instead hovering in the air as he does. Arthur dashes through the kitchen and Lewis pauses for the briefest moments as he sees Vivi and Mystery holding ridiculously large sandwiches. The two watch Arthur run before turning back to look at him and following Arthur in a dead sprint. Lewis is so intent on Arthur, he forgets to let the food fade away and instead gets splattered with it as he moves through it. 

_No,_ Lewis thinks, realizing they are all heading into an area he hasn’t worked on enough. It turns into a hallway of doors, each one leading back to the hallway, his deadbeats six! hang from darkness inside the doors, singing along to the beat of the mansion before Arthur throws himself into the first door. Lewis chases him, the whole area disappearing into a confused mess as they pop in and out of doors before Arthur, followed directly by first Vivi, then Mystery, and then Lewis rips open the last door of the hallway, leading them out to another part of the mansion. Lewis hovers after Arthur, ignoring the fact that Mystery has skid to a stop in front of one of the larger frames. Lewis doesn’t know where they are anymore and doesn’t care. He forces the hallway to shut into a corner ahead of Arthur, no longer wanting to play this game. _I will kill you,_ Lewis glowers at Arthur, his focus bearing down on him as he races closer to the terrified trapped man. His mouth is open in a scream he can’t force out due to his labored breath. _“MINE,”_ snarls Lewis before blue fills his vision.

Vivi.

Vivi has thrown herself in front of Arthur, arms outstretched, eyes closed, head turned, ready to take the hit for Arthur.

Lewis can almost hear a skidding noise as he stops barreling toward the now two living beings. He lifts higher in the air, shocked and not all surprised by Vivi’s actions.

_Gods she’s still beautiful,_ he thinks, dropping to stand on the ground just before her. He stares at her, drinking in every detail of her. She’s staring at him, surprise on her face, no speck of recognition in her eyes. On its own volition, the heart locket floats toward her. She looks down, seeing the heart moving at her. Her hands lift, cupping as the heart moves closer. It’s almost there now, her hands shifting, about to hold it and Lewis wants nothing more for her to hold it, a desperate unthought wish that fills his being as he looks at her looking at the heart.

Then Vivi is yanked to the side, Arthur literally dragging her away, Mystery leading the charge through the hallway toward the front door that has somehow appeared at the far end. She turns back to Lewis, a hand reaching for him. Lewis copies the action, reaching for her, sadness filling him. Forgotten by his love, unrecognizable to even his own killer, abandoned again. He forgets the hovering locket.

Forgets about it, that is, until it drops hard on the floor, leaving him with the sensation of being cracked in two and dying all over again.

_ARTHUR! HOW DARE YOU?!_

Rage unlike anything Lewis has ever felt before consumes him. _Of course, he killed me to get to her. Of course!_ Flames burn around him, gathering in intensity as he growls. He lets the rage out in a plume of flame that detonates the entire area around him, spreading outwards as his scream of anger follows them, the fire chasing after the group as they race toward the door and are flung out it as the hallway bursts into fire and rage.

The emotion spent, Lewis hovers a moment in exhaustion. The mansion around him is unaffected by whatever blast of fire he had done. He bends down, retrieving the heart locket from the floor, sadness and grief filling him as he notices the bright gold hue it once had is gone. It is now a lifeless gray, with a thick crack spanning its length, a second crack near the bottom separating the heart into three pieces. Lewis goes to the window and watches the Van sputter to life before speeding off. He looks down again at the locket, gingerly opening it, and stares at the picture inside again.

_It’s not enough,_ Lewis thinks miserably. He doesn’t feel the tear fall, doesn’t notice the reflection in the window now shows a man instead of a skeleton. His focus is on the picture and the lifelessness of the heart. 

_I think I might just disappear._

And so Lewis does, along with the mansion he had dreamed up.


	8. Played Out in My Dream

Lewis dreams? He’s not sure what is happening, but he doesn’t care. He sees Vivi, and that’s enough. In the darkness and silence, he sees _– dreams? –_ her watering the flowers she has in a pot on her kitchen counter, tiny but vibrant roses of purple. The plant is almost as big as the pot. She seems to be humming to herself.

Then darkness.

Then Vivi’s eyes dart looking between a laptop and physical map on the table in front of her. She’s talking quickly though he cannot hear the words, making marks on the map. Mystery barks silently, jumping between her and the table.

Darkness.

Vivi stomps her foot on the ground, her face twisted in anger. She throws a photo on the floor, tugging at her hair, tears of frustration in her eyes.

Darkness.

She’s crying now, in the darkness of the kitchen, moonlight hitting her hair as she wraps her arms around the pot of dying, diseased roses.

Darkness.

Vivi smiles, warm and bright, up at Fatalii Pepper who is giving her a plate covered in food. Mrs. Pepper returns her smile, though it is pinched in the corners by sadness. Anaheim Pepper sets a milkshake beside the plate, the man’s warm smile also shaded by sadness. He rests a gentle hand on Vivi’s shoulder. Fatalii moves away, but not before there is a glimmer in her eyes that speaks of tears.

Darkness.

Vivi cries, clutching another man, who is stroking her hair gently as they sit on a couch in front of a table strewn with photos. She sniffs, looking up at him, speaking before he nods and beings to talk, eyes focusing on one picture, fingers brushing it.

Darkness.

Vivi waters a pot of tiny, unopened buds of roses, the plant seemingly dwarfed by the pot. The pot is set in a wide dish of pebbles and she deliberately splashes water over the pebbles too, determination on her face.

Darkness.

Vivi’s laughing silently, wild gestures flung from a man sitting in front of her. Her hand is wrapped around a cup of steaming coffee and she has a soft look in her eyes as she listens.

Darkness.

Darkness.


	9. I Got This Feeling

Darkness.

Silence. 

Then there is a sensation that is wholly unfamiliar. In all the time that has passed, the heart had not been touched by anything more than wind and rain, bare to the elements as it settled partially into the dirt it had landed on. Now, it feels as if something has fallen on with intention, and it feels vaguely like…himself. The locket beats again in time with the Universe; his consciousness returning. He lifts his head from the slumped position, wary. 

Suddenly, he feels as if he’s being stabbed through by something stubby. _A tree twig?_ he wonders, almost sleepily, _Blown by the wind?_ He has no intention of manifesting because of that. 

But then there’s the sensation of cutting, like a piece of his soul is being snipped away, and that catches him from falling back completely into the darkness. Wariness and anger snap through him but he finds no one with him in the darkness. 

The beat continues, pounding in his ears rapidly. 

Abruptly, a new sensation fills him and this one feels more or less human. A rough hand is grabbing his locket, squeezing it like an orange being squeezed of its juices, a string from his soul being pulled out of him in a focused intent. 

It _wrenches_ and is thoroughly unpleasant and _it better stop, NOW._

Lewis steams in fury before pulling himself out of the locket. Before him is a…a blue tree monster? It presents as female, a feminine look to the face, lumps on the chest underneath a grayish pink and white robe, large beaded necklace around the neck and matching bracelets. It makes Lewis think of a bonsai tree, with the foliage coming out of her white hair. In one bandaged hand she’s still gripping his locket, in the other similarly bandaged hand she gingerly holds a huge red and yellow flower that gives off the same energy he had sensed from Mystery that last time he had seen the dog. He towers over her, fury filling him. She makes a face of paralyzed fear, looking up at him. 

Whatever she was, she was holding his locket and it _hurt._

Lewis reels back, conjuring flame to cover his fist before letting it fly into the monster. He lands the hit right in her face, the force of the strike snapping the head from her neck. The head shoots away in an arch in the full moon’s light, turning to dried out dirt halfway before landing on the ground, bursting into a cloud of dirt and ash. Looking back at his heart locket, he finds the arm that had been holding it has turned into the same clotted dirt the head had. He rips the heart away from the creature, snapping the dirt arm into pieces as he does, before turning away and setting the heart over his chest again. It is far lighter than it had been once, as if it is made of glass or something as equally fragile. Lewis looks down at it in concern, still cracked, gray, and not quite as warm as it had been but still beating steadily. 

The sound of rapid growth and a _snap_ make Lewis turn back to the creature, in time to watch her head reappear, grown it seems from the body itself. She smirks at him before regrowing her arm from a quickly blooming pink flower and then she reaches back behind her. 

Lewis doesn’t know what this creature wants, but if it’s a fight she wants, he will gladly give it to her - _that_ at least is something he could understand. As she rummages at her back, Lewis lifts his hand, conjuring flames at the fist, and two lit lamps in the place that had once held a mansion. Lewis holds his fist ready to strike again. 

The creature before him reveals a pair of pruning sheers with eyes, grinning savagely at him before seeing the flaming fist he had. She looks over at the flower bloom in her hand, seemingly torn between fighting him and whatever the flower meant. The monster turns away from Lewis, blowing the flower into petals that flew off in a wind that is not there, before giving him one last glance and sinking into the ground. A dirt trail like that of a lazy groundhog follows the petals. 

Lewis lets her go, more concerned over his heart than anything. In the world that makes no sense, at least _this_ did. He looks at it again, and it doesn’t seem impaired after being _plant_ handled. It beats in his hand steadily. In the background of his vision, he sees something move, and immediately focuses on it, unsure if it is the plant creature back for more. 

He sees a flower, a beautiful blue orchid with a purple center, and it beats twice in time with his heart. Now that Lewis is focusing on it, he can _feel_ Vivi. Startled, he picks up the flower gingerly by the cut stem, staring at it. _Blue like her_ , he thinks before glancing down at the ground again. There are two other flowers there; one purple rose with a yellow center, already wilting, and one…sunflower. As Lewis looks at the sunflower it beats as well, though it seems like it’s trying to crawl away from him with the vibrations. Lewis narrows his glance. _Arthur_ , he thinks angrily before moving closer to the flower and stomping on it with all his might. 

The flower flattens under him, petals strewn along the ground. He can almost hear Arthur yelping.


	10. Afraid of Losing You

Lewis turns his focus turns back to the orchid in his gentle grasp. Vivi’s laugh fills his hearing. He cups the flower, leaning toward it as if it would speak a secret. It felt like Vivi, bright and cold all at once. Her laughs echoes in his mind and suddenly he sees her. Not in the abandoned, overgrown grounds of a mansion, but outside a coffee shop, sitting at an iron wrought table for two. A cup of coffee rests in her hand and she’s laughing, sitting across from him, trying to tell a story through her laughter. Lewis grins at her, coffee in front of him, so real he can smell the scent of it. It’s funny, whatever she is saying, and he begins to laugh with her, deep and rumbling. Then it cuts to black, the sound of scream cutting the image to ribbons. 

He startles, realizing he’s made a replica of what he had seen, sitting in a chair at a table, a cup of coffee before him. He is still holding the locket, but now it’s open, the picture of her in his arms staring at him. The silence is unbearable in the absence of laughter and Lewis summons two of his deadbeats, one on either of his shoulders to fill the air with humming. 

He stands, paces, and thinks while they hum. The flower flops gently in his grasp and he begins to tie what he’s seen to ideas of his own. 

Then, without warning, the flower starts to wilt in Lewis’s hand. He grabs a few petals before the flower dies fully and sprinkles them over the picture before shutting the locket over the petals, watching with some surprise as the heart burns gold once more, the cracks sealing. The heart grows heavier, back to the heft it had once been. 

It looked like that plant creature was tracking Mystery through the petals she made. By the same logic, he should be able to find Vivi in the same way and carry out his last task. He would protect her from Arthur. He _must._ Arthur must be taken away from her, and if he knew anything, he knew Arthur wouldn’t leave Vivi unless he died. 

Oh yes, he can feel it now, a slight tug far ahead. They were much closer than he had thought they’d be. 

Lewis puts the heart back in its place, looking down at it another moment before lifting his gaze to the road ahead. A third deadbeat springs from his back and he listens to the tune they make, melting the table and chair in a plume of flame behind him. He hovers forward, down to the road, before ordering the deadbeats away. Standing in the road he thinks, _What will be the fastest way to get to them? Wait, what’s that noi–_

A semitruck barrels down the dirt road, blinding him before slamming into him and screeching to a shuddering stop moments later. _Why thank you,_ Lewis thinks, inside the truck. _I’ll take it._ He moves through the truck, fashioning it into something far more sinister looking than a delivery semi. He barely notices the door opening or the scrambling man as he dives toward the grass as he focuses on his task, reworking the truck in flames. It’s done in seconds, a purple and black truck with skulls and thorned vines and hearts and spiked wheels. Lewis forms himself in the driver’s seat, gripping the steering wheel. 

_“Here I come!”_ Lewis snarls, stepping hard on the gas pedal.


	11. A Brief Reprieve: Rooster's Tale

Rooster had been driving for two days now. It was a little town he is supposed to go to, something like Rhythm or Beat or something. _It’d probably help if I knew the town name,_ he thinks, drinking the entire can of red bull in his hand in one long chug, one eye on the road. “I might get there faster,” he says aloud, a habit he’s picked up. He throws the empty can on the dashboard, reminding himself to clean out the cab the next time he takes a break. On top of his head the chicken egg he’s keeping warm shifts slightly. He had promised his momma he was going to keep the egg warm while on the trip and when the heat broke in the truck halfway through the first day there was only one place to keep the egg where he knew it wouldn’t break in the fall. Or at the very least, if it did break, she couldn’t kill him for it. He chuckles at his own dark humor, missing the exit sign. “OH shit!” he snaps, moving his head around to stare at the sign. “TEMPO NOO!” He passes a van pulled over on the side of the road and gets a good view of the town he’s supposed to be heading toward. “Dammit,” he whines, trying to find the next exit. There’s a road that looks promising, heading in the same direction he had just seen the town. It’s dirt but it’s nice and wide and Rooster risks it, turning onto it. 

As soon as he does, however, he regrets the decision. There are no lights anywhere and worse, there is no open space for him to turn around. He barrels through a creepy dead forest, the bare trees showing their twisted limbs and casting shadows over the truck as he continues to drive, looking everywhere _anywhere_ that’s big enough for him to turn around. It’s several minutes of driving in the forest when he comes up to the ruins of some estate. Desperately, he looks for a driveway but finds only a walkway and stairs. Was that a _pink ghost_ he saw standing in the middle of the ruins? “Great,” Rooster mutters. “One wrong turn and I’m in some haunted forest. I’m…I’m sure I just imagined it. I am so _tired._ ” Finally, _finally,_ he reaches a fork in the road and decides to risk it there. If another car came through this seemingly unused road, they’d just have to _deal with it_. 

Rooster expertly turns the semi, and within minutes is heading back in the right direction. He barrels over the small hills the road is on, desperate to make up time and get the hell out of this creepy place. He lets himself get in an extra long blink as crests one of the bigger hills before _thump_. 

_Oh SHIT did I just run over someone?!_ He could have sworn the area was abandoned. He screeches to a halt, the truck shuddering, not wanting to go from forty to zero. When it does stop – with a nice lurch – Rooster only has a moment to try to register everything before the steering wheel under his hands grows hot. He looks down to see the normally black wheel turn a shade of pink that is wholly unnatural and lifts his hands up off it. The pink plumes up from the wheel, filling the cab with pink flames. 

_Nope, I’m out._

With a strangled shriek, Rooster throws open the door, leaping out of the truck and scrambling off the road. The truck goes up in pink flames and Rooster screams, not even registering the egg on his head is cracking. The flames engulf the entire truck and Rooster braces for an explosion. Then the semi roars to life and Rooster is left watching a black and pink truck spit loose dirt from the road and tear off. Leaving him alone. In the middle of the forest. 

“Oh fu –” 

_CHEEP!_

Rooster gently lifts his hat, feeling the pieces of egg drop from his head. He reaches his hand on top of his head and feels feathers, gently grabbing it and bringing the creature down into his lap. 

_Not alone,_ he thinks. _I’m in the middle of a forest with a chicken. Greeeaaat._


	12. The Hunt Is Over

The full moon rises higher in the sky as Lewis drives the truck. He can feel the tug of petals as they form a line between his locket and Vivi. Every minute brings him closer, every beat of that heart drew him toward her. It doesn’t seem like she is moving and he is eating up the road. By the time he hits pavement again, the sensation of the cord between him and Vivi thinning slightly, alerting him to her moving again, but he can go faster now. The deadbeats seem to form of their own volition, and Lewis lets them hum, one of them slung over the seats, one clutching his shoulder, one sitting as if it were a person beside him.

He can _feel_ the Van before seeing it, as if his powers stretched out before him, a hand that reached for the vehicle, killing the engine as he rounds the corner, a speck of yellow in the night on the road far ahead. The Van is moving on momentum alone by the time he has gotten halfway to it and Lewis can practically taste Arthur’s fear from his view. His focus solely on Arthur, the truck Lewis drives ate up the distance between the now stopped Van, but in his singlemindedness, his power releases the Van’s engine. Just before the truck hits the Van, the smaller vehicle springs back into life, racing away.

_Oh no you don’t!_

Lewis throws the truck into gear, speeding after his quarry. Up ahead he sees a tunnel, recognizing it the low one that barely admitted the Van, much less a semitruck. _No matter,_ he thinks, following Arthur through the tunnel, warping the truck into a column of flame. It beats in time with his locket before bursting through to the other side. He reforms the truck into its correct shape, maintaining the custom job he had laid on it. His anger is giving him strength, his former knowledge giving him ideas no other spectre would have dreamed up.

_**You can run but you can’t hide,**_ Lewis snarls. _It’s all over tonight._ He takes off the locket, holding it in one hand, opening it to look at it again, the petals fading away. _For you Vivi._ He closes the locket, taking solace in its warmth and glow before throwing a ball of flame at the tire of the Van. It rolls on the road like a wheel itself before wrapping around the tire and bursting it. Sparks fly as metal hits pavement instead of rubber and a sense of satisfaction wells from the sight of it. 

Something flies over the top of the Van, a blue and white pile that lands on the ground just before Lewis runs it over. It startles him, but when he looks back there’s nothing in the road. _Irrelevant._ Lewis focuses on following the sparks left behind by the Van. It’s heading for the guardrail of the road, and breaks through the single hole within it, wood bursting from temporary construction railing. Lewis watches the Van plunge down the hill toward a vaguely familiar building. Lewis lets the semi roll down the hill after it, watching it turn at the last second so that the side of the Van hits the corner of the building instead of front. Lewis has better control of the semi, able to pass the wreck to get a controlled stop, crunching through the ground. It’s a good distance away from the Van, but it’s still within sight of the building.

There is no movement from the Van. The back doors and passenger-side door are swung open from the impact. Lewis gets out of the semi-truck, glaring at the Van. Anger is consuming him, flames bursting from his hands as he moves toward the Van for a brief moment. The images of his past are swirling through his sight, flashing moments of the best of times with Vivi before seeing Arthur’s twisted grin as he pushed him off that cliff, and then feeling the frightening agony of waking up dead as if it were happening all over again. _His fault,_ Lewis thinks. _Arthur’s fault. He killed me. KILLED ME. I Will Make Him Pay._


	13. Hellbent, Baby

The sudden question of if this was right spikes through Lewis' anger, a wrecked ship in a storm. Lewis shelters the heart on his chest. _Do I really want this?_ Images flash through his vision again, agony in the green-hued cave, screaming without a voice. Like something out there is pushing him toward this, something outside himself. Whatever it was, the rage within him becomes blinding. 

Lewis settles the locket closer to his chest, his vision on Arthur. He hovers at the front of the Van. The windshield is completely broken and Arthur is slumped over the steering wheel, scuffed and dazed but very much still alive. It is nothing to haul him out of the Van from the broken windshield and drag him across the parking lot to his truck, holding him by the front of his shirt. Lewis knows Arthur has snapped out of it when he hears his terrified scream.

A scream he had heard so. Many. Times. Before.

 _Pathetic,_ Lewis thinks, looking at the other man before tossing him into the back of the truck, his deadbeats kindly opening the door for him. For fun, he has Arthur drop from a far distance before landing in his nightmare, his scream echoing.

The rage within Lewis makes everything so much easier. With barely a thought, the inside of the truck turns into a recreation of the cave Lewis had walked so many times before escaping. He sends in his deadbeats first, letting them fill the darkness with terrifying light. Then he drops down, watching Arthur flee down the path. Here is the recreation of the two paths, both signs pointing toward the left. Arthur tries the right path first, only to be jumped by three deadbeats. He gives out a short cry before throwing himself down the left path, his heavy footsteps as he raced toward the cliff. It was a perfect rendition of the cliff Arthur had thrown him off, though the spikes below were deeply purple and the area was well lit. Lewis watches the other man almost pitch himself off the cliff, stopping just in time and one arm windmilling to keep his balance, going so far as to lift his foot and throw it backward a moment. Lewis watches Arthur’s shoulders slump in relief.

Short term relief. Lewis has him now.

Lewis _finally_ has him.

Blind rage fills him on the cliff of his own making.

Lewis grabs Arthur by the front of his shirt, lifting him high into the air. He keeps his feet on the ground, to stay grounded as the dream around him takes so much energy to keep alive. He walks to the edge, dangling Arthur over the spikes, letting him see just exactly where he will be going. Arthur grips Lewis’s sleeve with one hand, his feet kicking vainly.

Terror spikes through Lewis but it is not his own. Arthur looks down and then screws his eyes shut. It is no effort at all to hold Arthur there, he has always been so small compared to Lewis. His other arm – Lewis suddenly noticing it is mechanical – clutches the other side of Lewis’s sleeve. 

Arthur opens his eyes and looks at Lewis in terror, the emotion spiking into Lewis like lightning bolts, adding high notes to the disconcerting vibrations in Lewis’s spirit. Lewis gives Arthur one last look at his face, a plume of flame flowing over his skull a moment as he is filled with true rage and hate.

Arthur’s face goes from terrified to shocked, still clutching at Lewis but much looser than he had been seconds ago. Shock and grief spike into Lewis like jagged chains, coming from Arthur’s contact. The emotions break into Lewis’s rage, cracks in stone.

“Lewis?” Arthur gasps.

Lewis opens his fist, letting Arthur fall.


	14. This Hurts Like Hell

Shock is still on Arthur’s face. His mechanical arm trails behind his body as he drops. The other hand reaches toward Lewis like he had just found a long-lost friend. That is the face he was making too. Lewis feels the flames wash over his skull again. 

Lewis suddenly imagines what his face might have looked like when Arthur pushed him. He imagines it looked rather similar to the face Arthur is making right now. The pain isn’t going away, in fact, now it is even worse. The high-strung shriek vibrating in his bones picks up even more and makes him feel like he’s going to snap into pieces.

_Oh gods. Oh no._

Regret washes out hate. Lewis reels back, hearing the locket on his chest shatter, become lighter than ever before, and go cold. He lifts his hand again, breaking apart the spikes. _No. No._ Arthur is falling, dropping too fast. Lewis isn’t sure if he can break the spikes up fast enough.

A gunshot blasts through him from behind, tearing the locket from him. The nightmare fades away. Lewis watches the heart bounce onto the floor of the delivery truck interior and Arthur drops into a pile of seemingly empty cardboard boxes.

Lewis should feel relief.

But he doesn’t.

The hate is back, the anger, and even a heavy dose of frustration. The hole in his chest heals and he turns only his head to see just who the _fuck_ he’s going to kill. Lewis doesn’t know Lance well. Uncle to Arthur, the mechanic who showed Arthur everything he knew about the subject, the only family he had that really cared about Arthur, no doubt a good man.

Lewis is going to strangle him now.

His anger is giving him more strength, no longer drained by keeping up a world within the truck. He lifts off the ground, hovering gently over the floor of the truck and drifts toward the man holding a double-barrel shotgun and still shooting at him. Most of the blasts are nothing, passing through the spectre. The last shot hits the same spot as the first one, making Lewis reel backwards, the wound taking longer to heal than the rest. Lewis looks the other man dead in the eyes. _REALLY?!_

He shoots forward so fast he catches the man by surprise, gripping him by the front of his shirt and throwing a punch with the same strength he had used to tear the head off that plant creature. Lance immediately goes unconscious and to make himself feel better, Lewis hits him a few more times before shaking him viciously.

Then there is a pain that is sharp and achy all at once. He feels a heartbeat _within_ him for a single moment and that _really_ throws him off.

Lewis turns, dropping Lance, and looks toward his heart.

It is in Arthur’s hands. He opens it and stares inside. Lewis watches in horror as Arthur peers closer at it, even as Lewis moves toward him.

Lewis snatches the locket out of Arthur’s hands, ignoring his gasp and the scrambling noises he makes. Lewis turns fully away from Arthur, embarrassed and irritated he didn’t just grab it first. He takes a step away before realizing the image has changed. There is Vivi, still being held by him. But now Mystery is in her arm giving his best fanged smile, her other arm up holding the camera, and Arthur is making his goofy peace signs beside her. He knows this picture. Vivi took this a few weeks before they went into the damned cave.

A little happy family.

His home away from home.

His heart is still beating in his hands but that’s not why the image is suddenly blurry. Lewis's hands are shaking. He doesn’t notice until a few seconds that something is coming out of his eye sockets, streaking down his skull.

Lewis drops to his knees, rubbing the picture with a thumb. The day this picture was taken was a warm, sunny day just after a successful hunt. Vivi had demanded a group photo… and this was the result. _So happy. All of us were so happy. We all loved each other. Where did it all go so wrong?_

“Lew? Lewis is that really you?”

Lewis looks back over his shoulder, tears still streaming from his eyes in dark lines. Arthur is kneeling on the floor of the truck, staring at him. _How could I forget I loved you too?_

Arthur still has that shock on his face, like his best friend just appeared after being lost for a year. _Maybe I did,_ Lewis thinks. _Maybe there really was something else in that cave._

Lewis turns slightly, still on his knees - not fully facing Arthur, but not fully turned away either. Arthur, hesitant and shaking, lifts his hand toward Lewis. _"Art,"_ Lewis manages, making Arthur flinch slightly, the hand held in the air, inches away his shoulder. _"Arthur I - "_

There’s a sudden noise outside and everything in Lewis is screaming at him to move. He snaps the locket in his hands shut, putting it in its properly place with one hand and with the other he snatches Arthur by the front of his shirt again, ignoring the look of fear and shock in the man’s eyes and heaves him to the doors of the truck towards his uncle. It is like throwing a bag half full of potatoes, no effort at all. Arthur lands with a soft _oof_ next to Lance and Lewis reaches out toward them. He’s never done a shield before, but he conjures one nonetheless, reminiscent a broad medieval knight shield, before making three more to form a barrier above, below, and to both sides of the two men. Lewis ties all his willpower to the box of shields – _Protect._

Then the world explodes.

Lewis feels the world go up in flame. He is thrown toward the doors of the truck by the concussive blast, hitting something hard from behind. With no protection of his own, Lewis is stunned, the shields he made dropping just as the flames dissipate. A deadbeat appears, humming confusingly. A hand to his skull, Lewis sees Arthur scoop up his uncle next to him and both he and Lewis look out from the destroyed truck to see… _vines?_


	15. Worried

_VINES!_

The image snaps him back to steadiness. Arthur and his uncle will be no good in this fight. Lewis grabs Arthur by the arm gently then juts his head toward the shop – _that’s right! It’s the Kingmen Mechanics!_ – the Van embedded in its front corner. The vines are swarming them now. Lewis doesn’t know how, but he knows the flames he conjures will burn off the vines. Green tries to surround them, only to fall into ash. He watches Arthur with his uncle slung over his shoulder make a beeline for the shop out the side of his sight. A thick vine made of other vines races behind, chasing Arthur. Lewis touches it, bursting it just before it reaches Arthur’s ankle. He looks up as something flies in the air and sees a giant wolf with many tails, and riding it, riding it is Vivi, like some warrior queen from the movies they used to watch together.

Lewis watches her leap off the back of the creature, a bat glowing in her hands as she brings it down heavily on one of the thick vines going for her and the creature. He watches the vines shatter in ice and as they do, all of the other vines burst in the same way. Fog chills the area, filling it with a thick cloud. His own heat burns it off around him, but he can't see more than a few feet. He can’t see Vivi. 

Now he’s torn. Does he check on Vivi or go for Arthur? He moves through the fog, heading in a line towards both of them. It’s harder for him to move now, conflicted as he is. There are sounds in the fog - growling, snarling. Then a noise of metal through air and then, more frightening, the sound of blood splattering against the ground. “Vivi?” Lewis asks the fog. There’s a thump, then a vicious snarling followed by another slashing of metal and a hard, skidding thud.

The fog is horrible. Lewis can’t see anything, there is light coming from him slightly, and the deadbeat that hums confused. He creates another deadbeat, gaining more light. He moves forward, uncertain. A flash of blue makes him pause before heading toward it. As he does, Lewis hears what makes no sense – a bat hitting a glass ball? Wood snapping? There are no trees or glass in that direction. He stops moving, thoroughly confused. A quiet sob. Then a choking gasp. And then lightening of multiple colors shoots through the air before the mist turns green and a nightmarish howl slashes through the air.

Lewis feels like he is getting twisted. He covers his ears, agony ripping through him. His sight disappears a moment, darkness no escape from the noise or pain.

When the sound dims a little, and Lewis opens an eye. The world is no longer filled with mist. He sees Vivi nearby on her knees, braced with one forearm, blood dripping down from her mouth and a wound to her side, gripping that side with her other arm, her glasses down at the end of her nose.

_"Vivi!"_

Lewis races toward her, all other thoughts gone. He slides to her side, gently resting one hand on her back and the other cradling her arm. She groans as he helps her sit up. Her eyes look up at him and there’s a moment where they locked eyes, her mouth dropping open. Vivi is so warm and alive it almost makes Lewis break inside.

Arthur races to their side, gripping his mechanical arm that is sparking madly. Lewis is about to ask if Arthur is okay before the creature before them snarls and howls again. It’s _huge_ and _glaring_ at them.

“What the fu –” Vivi starts.

Arthur just screams.

If Lewis had breath he would sigh.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well that's it for now. Check back in a bit for Arthur's side.
> 
> Also, if any chapters get major edits because of new lore, the original chapters will be after this one.


End file.
